When I was inkindergarten, my sister showed me a bunch of presents in the closet in the garage....On Christmas morning when I received those same presents from Santa - I was SHOCKED...but it also started our obsession with always finding the presents hidden in the house....one year when I was proabably ten sh - we were left home for a tiny bit and we snoped...we found them, but I guess they were also "booby trapped" and we got in trouble and were told everything would be returned. A lot of it did get returned...I got better at snooping.

Returning is an option....or...maybe put them all ...in full display.....up high on a shelf where they have to look at them every.single.day but not touch them or play with them.....how old are they? MAybe even tell them they will NOT be getting them for Christmas, and get them "necessities"...like socks, underwear, toothpaste, soap, etc to open on Christmas morning....and then in a week or something let them have their presents (if you really want them to have them)

ETA...Parker ( my only boy) is CRAZY about snooping and secrets, he can't keep a secret to save his life, and will snoop through everything to satisfy his "need to know".... Sometimes just "knowing" calms him down...as kids and even as adults my sister andI would ALWAYS tell each other what we were getting for Birthdays and Christmas and STILL we loved getting those gifts .... we just wanted to know. You could just act like it was no big deal and leave them "as is" ... it does ruin the fun but some people still enjoy a present een if they know what it is.

Do they know not to do it? I would make them donate (or you return the ones they opened) if they know better. I would allow them to have other gifts, but not the ones they opened.

Edit: Especially since they they were being sneaky about it. Telling them they aren't getting them and then giving them those gifts later ruins your credibility as a parent. They would absolutely lose those gifts and not get them back.

When I was inkindergarten, my sister showed me a bunch of presents in the closet in the garage....On Christmas morning when I received those same presents from Santa - I was SHOCKED...but it also started our obsession with always finding the presents hidden in the house....one year when I was proabably ten sh - we were left home for a tiny bit and we snoped...we found them, but I guess they were also "booby trapped" and we got in trouble and were told everything would be returned. A lot of it did get returned...I got better at snooping.

Returning is an option....or...maybe put them all ...in full display.....up high on a shelf where they have to look at them every.single.day but not touch them or play with them.....how old are they? MAybe even tell them they will NOT be getting them for Christmas, and get them "necessities"...like socks, underwear, toothpaste, soap, etc to open on Christmas morning....and then in a week or something let them have their presents (if you really want them to have them)

I used to snoop like crazy too until I got older and realized it took the fun out of it. That's a good idea though to give them non fun items

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Working my dream job as NICU Nurse . I have two not so little monsters Dominick and Gavin born 08/08/08 Still TTC #3

So they're not completely open? Are these the gifts they get from you all, not Santa? If they're just partially open I would just wrap them back and put them under the tree. If they know, they know. Nothing you can do about it now, they just won't have any surprises, and honestly, at their age, it's probably not as big a deal to them as us. They'll be just as excited a few weeks from now, even knowing what they are, lol. As for Santa, I don't think I would tell them he's not coming. Maybe somebody else will have a better suggestion. I'm sorry your disappointed though. I would be too.

Maybe the punishment is that they are not surprised on Christmas morning. I guess it's more like the natural consequence. " ok, you thought it would be a good idea to open your presents now. So you know what we got you for Christmas."

I wouldn't return the presents. You have already thought of them and what they like, bought gifts, wrapped them up. I wouldn't let their mischievousness force me to return them all, think of new gifts, buy new gifts, etc. i'd take the gifts, put them up until Christmas, then re-wrap them and they can open them Christmas morning.

That way they have the consequence of not being surprised, but Christmas morning will still be fun with unwrapping and toy playing.